the engine room THE NEWSLETTER FOR
ISSUE 3: WINTER 2008 OXFAM IRELAND VOLUNTEERS
IN THIS ISSUE:
2: Greetings from…Peter Anderson, Fundraising Manager; Remembering Annick 3: Did you know? Good news and curiosities 4-5: Oxfam’s World: Inside the Unwrapped project in Northern Uganda 6-7: Oxfam in the News 8-9: People to People: The Kilkenny shop & the Tanga AIDS Working Group 10: Campaign Focus: Taking action against unfair trade agreements 11: Nice pictures, Grand ideas: News from volunteers around Ireland 12: Your Letters the engine room
Greetings from... Peter Anderson, Fundraising Manager
I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank you all for helping to make Unwrapped 2007 the most successful Unwrapped year in Oxfam Ireland’s history. So far over €600,000/£445,597 has been raised – this is an increase of over 25% on last year!
I had the privilege of visiting Northern Uganda in November 2007 and met local people who had directly benefited from last year’s Oxfam Unwrapped. I was deeply inspired by the courage and hope of the women, men and children I met, of whom many had been displaced from their homes and lived in camps for up to ten years. Over one million people have been forced to live in camps for internally displaced people in Northern Uganda due to a conflict between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) spanning the past 20 years. Now, with the prospect of peace in Uganda, they are beginning to return home and Oxfam Unwrapped gifts of livestock and the vegetable garden gift of seeds and tools have enabled them to return to their land and earn their own living after years of dependence on aid.
One of the things that impressed me was just how lush and green the countryside was but it’s been neglected because everybody’s been living in these camps for years. If they could get back to the land they’d be able to earn their own living, which will enable people to pay school fees for their kids and stand on their own two feet. People repeatedly said to me, ‘I want to earn my own living again. I don’t want to be dependent on hand-outs in a camp. I want to get back to work my land.’
The most popular gifts this year were school books, drinking water and goats. Many families in Africa will receive goats, which are invaluable as they provide milk, manure which is essential for soil fertility, and they even feed on household waste, which gets rid of unwanted rubbish! And when the goats have kids, they are passed on to another family – a gift that keeps on giving.
The continued shop support for Unwrapped is invaluable – we really appreciate all the hard work of the staff and volunteers in making 2007 a great year for Unwrapped.
Fundraising Manager Peter Anderson is based in the Belfast office and joined Oxfam Ireland in May 2006.
Read more about Unwrapped on page 4.
Remembering Annick
It is with great sadness and regret that the Fundraising Team lost one of our staff, Annick van de Venster, on 6 February 2008.
While on holiday, Annick was trekking in the normally peaceful Mount Elgon National Park in Uganda, with a guide and porter, when their camp was attacked. Tragically Annick was shot and died at the scene. Annick’s death and its tragic circumstances are a great shock to us all. The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Oxfam Ireland go out to Annick’s family and friends at this very difficult time.
Annick loved traveling and discovering new cultures and in Oxfam she worked long hours with a large network of volunteers to make Unwrapped the success that it has been; her contribution and passion now brings hope to many families in Africa, including Uganda.
Annick was from Antwerp, Belgium and had worked with us in the Dublin Fundraising office since September 2006 and before that had volunteered in the Oxfam Georges Street shop in Dublin for over three years, where her fellow volunteers remember her fierce commitment, and her smile.
We will miss her very much. page Spring 2008 the engine room did you know?
A voice for volunteering
Sandra Velthuis is an independent consultant for the not-for-profit sector, specialising in volunteering issues. She has been contracted by Oxfam Ireland to develop a five year volunteer strategy for our organisation. To do this, she will need your input! In the coming weeks, she will be providing you with an opportunity to share your views on how the organisation can maximise positive volunteer involvement in the coming years, either by attending a focus group or by making a written submission. Use your voice!
The Cake Sale goes international
The Cake Sale CD, which many of you will be familiar with, has to date raised almost €250,000/£172,415 and sales are continuing to grow. The Cake Sale was recently released in the UK and the US, where the song Some Surprise (vocals by Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan and Lisa Hannigan) was chosen for the Thanksgiving episode of the hit TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Grey’s Anatomy is renowned for featuring future radio hits to soundtrack as part of the show, and Oxfam Ireland will receive around $35,000 USD for the use of this song! This is a huge success for the Cake Sale project
Lots of jewels and furniture
Congratulations to the Ballymena shop! Sales from jewellery accounted for 50% of the district’s total revenue last year.
Well done also to the Dublin Road shop, Belfast, for the furniture sales: furniture sales represent approximately 625 tonnes of stock retrieved from landfill per year! On page 12 read the nice letter sent by one very satisfied customer who recently visited the Dublin Road shop.
Music OxQuiz every month
The George’s Street shop team has had the fantastic idea of organising a monthly music quiz in the Pravda Bar, Liffey St, Dublin. The cost per person is €5, but only €2.50 if you donate a CD or vinyl for their shop.
The OxQuizzes are doing really well and in January the George Street team has raised €384/£287 in one night! For more information, call Solene or Kayoko on 01 478 0777.
Cover Photo: In this picture Caryn, Dundrum Shop Manager, and Esther, volunteer, are Shop managers Niall Brown and Emily Bennett at the helping out in the new Rathfarnham official opening on 7th February of the new Oxfambooks shop which opened in December. shop on Rosemary Street, Belfast. Hanging in the window Would you or any of your friends like are the new drop-down panels, also known as ‘success to volunteer in a brand new Oxfam stations’ to remind our customers about the “added shop? The Rathfarnham shop needs value” of shopping at Oxfam! The new shop is looking for more volunteers! For more information, volunteers with a passion for books: for more information please contact Maeve (District Retail please contact Nyree (District Retail Manager) on 078 Manager) on 086 8147174. 01150160.
Spring 2008 page the engine room
Peter Anderson, Oxfam Ireland’s Fundraising Manager, Katherine decided to join her local Child-to-Child drama went on a trip to Uganda just before the launch of the group as a result of her two-and-a-half-year-old brother’s last Unwrapped catalogue, to see the difference Oxfam death: she got involved with the peer education programme Unwrapped gifts make to people’s lives. This is one of because she didn’t want this to happen to anyone else. the stories he came back with. Through this programme, Katherine now helps other children learn about good sanitation to prevent the further Pictures by David Conachy and Crispin Rodwell spread of disease.
The Child-to-Child drama group Katherine belongs to Oxfam’s World is supported by the Oxfam Unwrapped gifts catalogue. It involves children teaching other children about good Northern Uganda: hygiene through dance, drama and singing. Life in the camps Peter watched the group perform a short play. One of the children played an old man who said things like ‘You don’t need to wash your hands after going to the toilet; in fact you don’t even need a toilet, just go behind a bush like Katherine and the Child-to-Child drama group we’ve always done’. One of the children listened to the old man and Peter says, “The point was very well made that Over the past 20 years, Uganda has suffered the effects of he got sick and the nurses and doctors had to look after conflict between the government and the Lord’s Resistance him.” Army (LRA), which has included the looting of villages, brutal massacres and the abduction of children to serve Over two hundred children were watching the play with as child soldiers. Peter and learning about the transmission of cholera. Programs like the Child-to-Child drama group have had an During his recent visit to Northern Uganda, Peter met enormous impact in IDP camps. There are often outbreaks Katherine Aol, a fourteen-year-old girl who lives in a camp of cholera in Northern Uganda but recently people living in for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and whose little camps have been incredibly less affected than people who brother had recently died of cholera. stayed in towns and villages.
Peter went on a trip to see how the Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped Gifts can make a difference in the communities of people who had to flee their homes during the war and are now living in the camps for Internally Displaced Persons in Northern Uganda. page Spring 2008 the engine room
The gift “musical instruments” (€30/£22) can help the Child-to-Child groups’ facilitators to attract more children and involve them in positive activities, while learning about good hygiene practices in the difficult camp environment.
Katherine is proud of the difference the drama group is making in the camp with the support of Oxfam Unwrapped. As Peter says, “the Unwrapped gifts are not just a toilet or a drum for the kids: we’re providing clean water, toilets, and health education. It’s a holistic approach to sanitation. I saw it in action, I saw it working, and I really would like to thank all the Oxfam Ireland staff and volunteers that over Christmas worked so hard to make Unwrapped a big success. And obviously all the people who purchased an Unwrapped gift!”
By Maeve McKeown, Intern with the Marketing and Communications Department.
The gift “support a woman in business” (€38/£28) Katherine, fourteen years old, joined her local Child- has helped Rose and her neighbours to start a small to-Child drama group when her little brother died of business to sustain their families. They now sell cholera. She now provides health education to the peanuts and vegetables at the local market in the children in her community. camp where they live.
Spring 2008 page the engine room
From MetroLife: It’s a Blue Giraffe by Shane Blout, one of twelve artists who generously contributed work alongside 12 emerging and established poets to Oxfam Poems 2008. Metro, 19 December 2007
From the Leader: Oxfam’s Coleraine shop From the Irish Daily Star: Jenny Lee Masterson outside the Georges Street volunteers and manager proudly standing in Shop at the launch of the M&S/Oxfam Clothes Exchange Campaign. Irish front of the winning window display in the ‘Not for Daily Star, 29 January 2008 Profit’ section of the annual Coleraine Borough Chamber Window Dressing Competition. The Leader, 08 January 2008
If you would like to get some local media profile on your shop or initiatives, or are ever in need of volunteers or stock, or maybe have an unusual story to tell, please get in touch.
ROI - Dublin Office: Paul (Media and Communications Executive) on 01 604 0706
NI - Belfast Office: Phillip (Media and Communications Officer) on 028 9057 2891 From the Belfast Telegraph: Former Miss Northern Ireland Fiona Hurley pictured at Oxfam Ireland’s Ormeau Road shop in Belfast for the launch of the M&S/Oxfam Clothes Exchange campaign. Belfast Telegraph, 30 January 2008 page Spring 2008 the engine room
From the Kilkenny Voice: Readers in Kilkenny are thanked for their support of Unwrapped. The Kilkenny Voice, 18 January 2008
IN THE NEWS
From Metro: Oscar-winning actress and long-time supporter of Oxfam, Helen Mirren helped to promote From the Sunday Business Post: Solene Rapinel, manager of the Unwrapped 2007 by appearing in Oxfam’s Unwrapped Oxfam George’s Street shop, was photographed for a feature on ad campaign to rid Christmas of the misery of Ireland’s retail charity evolution. Sunday Business Post 06 January disappointing presents. Metro, 5 November 2007 2008
Spring 2008 page the engine room
Wool power… people to raise more funds Amy O’Donnell, a volunteer in Oxfam’s Kilkenny shop for almost five years, has come up with an innovative way to raise much needed funds for Oxfam Ireland’s work in developing countries. This idea also uses donated stock and to supports the Kilkenny hurling team, aka the Kilkenny Cats!
A large stock of unused soft toys and loyal support of the county hurling team sparked the idea to dress up teddy bears. “I knitted ‘jerseys’ in the black people and amber colours of Kilkenny. They were put on display in the shop and as hurling gripped the county, they sold like hot cakes!” says Amy O’Donnell. Knitting fever quickly spread throughout the Kilkenny shop with another shop volunteer, Kitty Minougue, knitting corsages and ties in black and amber using a pattern from the Knit for Oxfam initiative. There is a selection of knitting patterns ranging from hats to string bags free to supporters who wish to get crafty and make items for Oxfam to sell (see www.oxfamireland.org/ whatyoucando/volunteer.)
Confident that the Kilkenny cats will reach the final again this year, Amy has already started knitting her black and amber jumpers and has also managed to rope in her neighbour to dress some bears in black and amber. Amy promises the jerseys are quick and easy to knit and can of course be made up in any team or county colours.
It was a friend of Amy’s who organised an event with the proceeds going to Oxfam and who initially encouraged Amy to volunteer in an Oxfam shop. With a grown-up family and more time on her hands she called into the local Kilkenny shop, offered her services and has never looked back. Every Friday Amy volunteers in the local Kilkenny shop and thoroughly enjoys the banter and fun with the other volunteers.
Established in 1999, Oxfam Ireland’s Kilkenny shop has over thirty regular volunteers. Kathleen Brennan, a volunteer for many years in the Kilkenny shop, recently wrote a poem to describe her experience of volunteering in the Oxfam Kilkenny shop.
To Oxfam
Sometimes I sit and wonder At the tapestry of life Each thread is woven skilfully Full of laughter and stife
Some threads are dull and dreary Others give off a hue The Kilkenny Of beauty and of colour volunteers have sent Yet, the dull help them shine through the Engine Room some It’s God above has woven Each thread and part we take nice pictures and a He’s there when we feel sorrow poem. And a great idea And our hearts are fit to break
to raise funds… from But he also gives us laughter hurling fans! And friends we never knew And when I joined with Oxfam Ireland I found them all – thank you!
page Spring 2008 the engine room
Tanga Aids Working Group: Breaking the stigma people In the early Nineties, a group of doctors and nurses in the Tanga region of Tanzania were shocked by the way HIV and AIDS was affecting their community. They saw how people living with the virus to were stigmatized and isolated, and felt compelled to do something. In 1992, they formed Tanga AIDS Working Group (TAWG), organising themselves as a team of voluntary counsellors, HIV educators and care providers in response to the gap in care due to stigma. people When TAWG formed there was no access to anti-retroviral drugs for people living with the HIV virus, and no reasonable hope of gaining it. The only available treatment for the related opportunistic diseases was traditional herbal remedies. Rather than shun such practices, TAWG embraced them, testing the herbs to find out whether they were safe and what effects they had.
With Oxfam Ireland’s help TAWG has grown from a small group of hard-working professionals to an internationally recognised non- governmental organisation, winning the prestigious UN Red Ribbon Award in 2006 and bridging the gap between traditional and modern medicine (in the picture, Dr. Mtullu – first from right – and the Tanga AIDS Working Group team during the awards ceremony).
When Oxfam Ireland’s HIV and AIDS Programme Coordinator, Dr Enida Friel, visited Tanga last year, she met a woman whom TAWG had helped to rebuild her life. Abi (we have used a different name to protect her anonymity) had been working as an accountant in Dar Es Salaam and was engaged to be married. She and her partner decided to get tested for HIV before the wedding. They were shocked to discover that Abi was HIV positive and her partner was not. When Abi become too sick to continue working, she moved back to live with her family in Tanga, staying in touch with her boyfriend somehow. In Tanga, she was too scared to disclose her status because she didn’t want to be stigmatized. Because of this she was not accessing treatment and was becoming more and more ill.
Eventually she visited the TAWG clinic. A counsellor talked to her family to provide an environment where she could disclose her status. They also helped her access testing and treatment. TAWG staff trained Abi’s mother to administer Abi’s medication regularly, to cope with the side-effects, and taught her about good nutrition. Through this support Abi regained her strength and is considering returning to work. The Tanga AIDS TAWG is so now well respected in the Tanga community, that its work Working Group is one is a crucial help for more and more people towards disclosing their status and breaking the stigma. of the longest-standing partners of Oxfam Ireland in Tanzania. Read how they are supporting their own community.
Spring 2008 page the engine room
Campaign Focus:
Stand up and be counted!
Remember our call to action against Economic Partnership Agreements, EU trade deals that are holding developing countries to ransom? Oxfam has been fighting for a fairer deal than that being offered by the EU and we asked you to visit the Oxfam Ireland website and email decision- makers to demand they voice our protests. The reaction was incredible. Already over 500 people have taken action, ensuring that government offices were flooded with emails from Oxfam campaigners, to which they now must respond. And we want to say well done and thank you.
So why is your voice so important? to big companies taking over from local businesses and suddenly pulling out and leaving the economy in ruins. These trade deals have been forced upon poor countries It also means poor countries’ import tariffs, which make with very little time to consider their implications and up a significant part of the governments’ revenue, will with no alternatives. In fact, those who have accepted disappear, forcing governments to cut back on essential the agreements have done so under enormous services like health care and education. pressure, and those who haven’t are being threatened with economic sanctions if they don’t come on board. What can we do?
What will EPAs mean for developing The answer is easy. Join the 500 that have already taken countries? action. Demand that your government represents YOU. Email them today. Just pop on to www.oxfamireland.org, click into the Campaigns and Advocacy section and send These trade deals are forcing poor countries to open up their an email that will ensure that decision makers know that markets to EU investment, making them more vulnerable we haven’t forgotten.
For a Fairer World
Stop Climate Chaos
On Saturday 8th December, Oxfam Ireland staff and volunteers joined the Stop Climate Chaos ‘Parade for the Planet’. It was a miserable wet and windy day but despite the daunting conditions over 800 brave souls came out to ‘Sound the Alarm’ for action on climate change (in the picture: Oxfam Ireland’s Intern Liz O’Rourke and Campaign Administrator Eilís Ní Chaithnía at the Dublin Stop Climate Chaos parade).
Fairtrade Fortnight
It’s that time of year again… a celebration of Fairtrade products and a time to rethink our daily buying habits and make the switch to Fairtrade goods – check your supermarket, visit an Oxfam Fairtrade shop (on street or online) and keep an eye on our website for our Fairtrade Fortnight activities.
The Fairtrade labelling scheme is a rapidly growing international system which seeks to guarantee a better deal for farmers and workers in the developing world.
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Nice Pictures and Grand Ideas!
L-R: Aoife Murray, Sinéad Williams, Rebecca Lambe, Phibsboro shop’s fantastic window for Halloween! Zoe Backwell, Sadhbh Murphy and Ruth McElroy are Fortunately, customers were not scared away as sales the fabulous Dundalk Oxjammers who raised €3,520/ went very well! £2,628 with their own Oxjam gig and plan to do it again this year! Well done, girls, looking forward to hearing from you again!
Meet the Interns: Here is Maeve McKeown, from Belfast – who collected a bank of Oxfam Ireland overseas stories like the one you can read on page 4 – with Virginia Tarozzi from Italy and Katrin This year, the HIV and AIDS Working Group produced Moeller from Germany, who supported the Fundraising 3 specially designed posters to mark World AIDS Day, Department. The Christmas season is always one of the which were displayed on shop windows. Here are the busiest times for Oxfam Ireland so thank you to all interns for December 1st windows of the Oxfambooks shop in helping and contributing to the success of Unwrapped 2007! Ennis (picture sent by Phil Gaston) and the Rathmines If you are interested in working as an intern with Oxfam Shop in Dublin (picture by Allan Clarke). Ireland, check out www.oxfamireland.org/whatyoucando/ volunteer
Spring 2008 page 11 the engine room Your Letters
For me, Fair Trade was the only solution
Hello everyone,
My name is Esther and I’m 23 years old. I grew up in Belgium but my mother is Spanish and my father Italian. Studying Foreign Trade at university, I realised how conventional trade can be unfair to poor communities in developing countries, and since I’m not okay with exploitation and no respect of human rights, for me Fair Trade was the only solution.
During my last year at university I had the opportunity to get a grant with the Leonardo program and go to Spain to do an investigation about Fair Trade in Castilla y Leon. There I spent 6 months in a Fair Trade shop named Equitanea, studying the Fair Trade system and trying to establish a network between the NGOs and independent fair trade shops in Leon. This project is still waiting a real organisation, but this experience was wonderful for me; I worked and learnt with a lot of professional Fair Trade believers, and I’m very grateful for this.
When I finished university I decided to come to Ireland to improve my English, and I became part of another European program named FIT, for which I had to do work experience for three months. That’s how I started to work as full time volunteer in the Oxfam Ireland Fair Trade shop in Cork. When the manager left, I seized the opportunity to apply for the job and I got it… I needed 4 weeks to really realise that I had it and that I was the new shop manager, but now I’m used to it. I am so happy to work in Fair Trade and to be part of Oxfam that I don’t really have the words to express myself.
From Esther Perazzolo, Fair Trade Shop, Cork The Shopping Spree
Last Monday I was feeling low It’s all this rain, you see A very satisfied customer So I decided I would go Out on a shopping spree.
I met a neighbour on the street Who I was pleased to see And judging by her expression She felt just as low as me.
I told her what I planned to do As we went on our way Smiling, she said “good for you, I’ll join you if I may”.
We went to this exclusive shop To me big stores are hateful But here, the costumer is top, For every sale they’re grateful.
I bought this coat, this lovely dress, A necklace and a ring, I bough this hat, and wearing it I feel just like a queen. Received by the Dublin Road shop, Belfast Then afterwards we went for tea The Engine Room is an internal newsletter produced by the We had cakes with cream and jam Marketing and Communications Department for Oxfam Ireland volunteers. Quite easy to afford, you see, Our spree was at OXFAM. SEND YOUR IDEAS, STORIES, LETTERS AND PICTURES TO: The Engine Room - Volunteers’ Newsletter Oxfam Ireland, 9 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 By Myrtle Ferguson, email: [email protected] tel: Elisa at +353 1 6350425 Oxfam Ballyhackmore Shop page 12 Spring 2008